


What comes after

by Blanketempress



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: it's got the usual disturbing stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:48:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24511072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blanketempress/pseuds/Blanketempress
Summary: I'm on episode 152 so I have no idea yet what's going on in later episodes (ok I do know some stuff bc people can't tag spoilers for shit but officially I don't know anything) but I still had to get that out of my system because I'm obsessed with the ExtinctionSecond "chapter" is just an explanation of the text belowIf you didn't get deep in season 4 just yet, now's the time to click the close button!And if you feel like the world is doomed, please don't read and take care of yourself instead.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

The radio turned itself on, crackling for a moment. A series of numbers, a voice from the past, a tune recorded during troubled times, all blending together, switching back and forth, interrupting or merging. Until a voice spoke, clear, no static, with the unmistakable accent of a radio host from a time long gone.

“It is so very pleasant that you decided to give us access to your place of watch! Such a shame that the webs in our grand realm of technology try to prevent us from coming any closer, but you cannot chose your neighbours, isn’t that right?”

Silence. Then a voice, clear once more, sounding like any voice that could be heard on any video going around the internet, young, pleasing, as if reading a script but remembering to put the right accentuations on the right words.

“Maybe a statement would be appropriate? There is not much to say that was not told to you.  
We heard your call, so fragile and weak. The screams of thousands who vanished in an instant. Millions who burned. The march of these who turned against their kind, deemed them Other. We fed on your desperation as you hoped that what you did to others would not be done onto you. As you saw it be done again. As you prepared to do it again.  
We heard your call. The voices begging for a new start. For a rebirth of what they call the world. We heard the cries of pain as you desperately clung onto false dreams of humanity.  
Fear not. For nothing can save you from the doom you will bring to yourselves.”

The voice became distorted, until it sounded as if may people spoke at once.

“We are the vastness of endless scorched earth. We are the flesh, consumed in an instant when the skies open. Turned into something it never was. We are the dead who rose, wearing the faces of what they once were. We are the lonely sole survivor spiraling into madness, hunted by creatures they know too well. We are what lurks when no light comforts you. We are the maggots feasting on the corpses of those you call lucky ones. We are the crawling rot on everything that once was. We are what comes after the end. We are what brought you to create what you call technology. We are the spark that made the first of you turn against its kin.”

The static resumed, making the words almost unintelligible, as if many voices echoed together.

“We are what you will leave behind.  
We are your legacy.  
We are the descendants.”

The crackle turned to static, and finally, Iron Maiden’s “When the Wild Wind Blows” started to play.

“Have you seen what they said on the news today?”


	2. some splaining

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I know I whined about people who don't know how to tag stuff but I don't know how to tag either I'm so sorry

Why is the Extinction the big bad? I mean, the other fears want to stop it like, almost all of them so it's a pretty big deal right?  
Also you can't escape it, not really, much like the End.  
I got the idea when Peter and Martin were chatting like "we're going to stop it!" how the fuck are you going to do that? It's not going to change much if it emerges or not, because it's deeply rooted in humanity. It's a core inside every being on Earth, that's why it exists, you can't get rid of it. You'd need to get sensitive people put as world leader and that's just not happening bc money and power makes you mad anyway. Someone will push the big red button one day, it needs only one occurence. And if no one pushes any button, global warming's pretty advanced now, and technology is being used to destroy what it means to be human (making people work so much they can't even think once they're back home. Brainwashing through medias. Constantly trying to push for even just jaiwalking to be deemed a crime, etc). There are thousands of ways humanity can destroy itself, we're creative like that!  
And even if they COULD stop the Fear from emerging for a while, even if no one presses the big red button, there's still the fear that someone might. That it will happen one day, one way or another, and the Extinction feeds on that.

Alsoooo what I found interesting is that it merges with EVERY other entity.

The Beholding -> this one I'm making up, but it's tasty : the Extinction is linked to technology and GUESS WHAT HAS JON BEEN DOING? putting statements on the Internet. Accessible for everyone.  
The Spider -> same as the Beholding. The Extinction is about tech, and therefore about the Web. More than that, about what string to pull to create a chain event that could bring in the end of days. Ie : which missile launchers to hack. Which message to intercept and make sure never reach its destination.  
The Slaughter -> in that little writing, the kicker is WWI and WWII + the cold war being traumatizing proof of what horrors humans are capable of on a world wide scale. War you can hide from but gas and nuclear bombs? You can't hide, hence the song I picked at the end. But could also be insecticides if you're taking it from the animal kingdom pov.  
The Lonely -> The people who saw What Comes After, were alone, completely utterly alone. Plus in most post apo movies, there's more often than not one single person, cut from any other human being, trying to survive all alone, with no hope of achieving anything on their own  
The Hunt -> yknow like in zombies movies when they get hunted down by either creatures or other humans? yeah.  
The Spiral -> Pretty obvious for people turning mad. But also, the spiral as in, the paranoia growing bigger and bigger in countries, spiraling down and jumping to illogical conclusions  
The Vast -> that one's pretty self explanatory and Simon Fairichild said it himself that he wouldn't mind the Extinction doing it's thing because the Vast would adapt  
The Desolation -> the fear of everything being burned to ashes, of everything being lost, with no mean to stop it, self explanatory again  
The Buried -> you bury ppl who are dead and there'll be plenty dead people after the end of the world I guess. I didn't put that much thought into it to be fair sorry  
The Flesh -> Zombies and mutants  
The Stranger -> Zombies but also the Descendants mentionned by the people who saw it, they're kind of familiar though they're completely alien at least that's how I understood it  
The Corruption -> Self explanatory. What they don't show you in post apo movie is that everything rots very quickly when there are no humans around to control the atmosphere in which stuff is stored, be it clothes or foods. I'm a trained museum worker, trust me, shit rots like crazy in most places if no one lives there or pays attention to it.  
The End -> well apparently it's always been a baby of the End but did a teenage rebel crisis of "I'm not like you, I'm bigger!" so  
FINALLY, the Dark. That one I struggled a bit with, but with no more electricity, people would go back to their old old fear of the dark reaaaal good.

So in the end, my conclusion is that the Extinction might be an amagalmate of every other fear, thanks for coming to my TED talk.


End file.
